Only 1% of the world's water can be used for human consumption. Half of the global population will be living in areas of "acute water shortage" by 2030. In India, where water shortages are already being felt, there were over 50 reported acts of violence over water during the month of May alone. And while experts estimate 2.5 gallons per person per day is a sustainable amount to use, the average American consumes 100 gallons per day. And that's just household use, not counting the amount used for agriculture and manufacturing of the goods we consume.
Peak water: Yep, we're approaching it. But could peak water really be the new peak oil? Could water barons be the new oil barons? And just how much of it have we got left? As water supplies dwindle and drought increases worldwide, some technologies are emerging that supply hope for a stable future, and major players in the water game are also beginning to take shape. Below, we take a look at the most pressing fresh water issues--from what's in your tap to how withering aquifers will affect the global economy and climate change.
London Restoring Water Fountains, Giving Citizens Free Drinking Water
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California 
on 11.20.09
Photo via Maurice
When did water fountains become more of a novelty than an expectation in urban areas? And when did their restoration become news? It seems to say something about the state of free clean drinking water in cities - perhaps we've realized we've gone too far towards bottled water and are finally, finally making our way back to the tap. Either way, London has restored a drinking fountain in famous Trafalgar Square, and hopes that it starts a trend of renovating fountains across the city, returning free clean water to citizens who are out and about enjoying their public spaces.
Sewage-to-Drinking Water System Readied for Luxury Singapore Resort Island
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY on 11.18.09
photo: Shahram Sharif via flickr.
Now this is extreme water recycling: Dallas, Texas-based Global Water Group has installed its first sewage-to-drinking water system on the Singaporean island of Pulau Seringat, Greentech Media reports. Originally developed for military applications, similar systems have been deployed on oil rigs and for special events, this system will process 2,500 gallons of wastewater a day into potable water for luxury hotel guests:
Microscopic Ozone Bubbles Attack Oil Sheen Pollution
by David DeFranza on 11.17.09
Image credit: timparkinson/Flickr
Oil sheen, the scummy film that forms on the top of polluted bodies of water, is incredibly difficult to remove. Even common filtering practices, like aeration and sand filters, have trouble removing the small amount of oil that leaves neon swirls on the water's surface. Now, a scientist at the University of Utah has developed a new technology, combining and adapting some existing methods, to address oil sheen pollution.
Using an inexpensive pump to repeatedly pressurize and depressurize ozone gas, the system creates microscopic bubbles that attack oil sheen and allow it to be captured by a conventional sand filter.
SF Green Festival 09 - Reclaimed and Eco-Art Speaks to Minimizing Waste
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11.17.09
Attendees at the San Francisco Green Festival weren't lacking for beautiful things to look at. This display used found materials including flowers and edibles. It is beautiful, and colorful, but right next to it was another large and impressive piece of art created from industrial materials welded together. It was that piece that seemed to draw people in...
Better Ways to Celebrate America Recycles Day: Practicing the 7 Rs (Slideshow)
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11.16.09
Yesterday was America Recycles Day, which isn't a bad thing as an idea -- certainly, more recycling is better than less -- but do we really need a day for it?
Last year, Lloyd called recycling "bullsh*t" as a big picture solution, and reiterated it this year, and he's right. Do we really need a day dedicated to reminding us to recycle?
Let's work a little harder and celebrate Zero Waste Day instead. To do so, all you have to do is follow the 7 Rs.
Can India Achieve Food Security?
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11.13.09
Photo credit: antkriz via Flickr
The World Summit on Food Security convenes next week in Rome, and the buzz leading up to it has focused on what it will take to produce enough food to feed the world. It's an issue that sounds simple enough on the surface -- humans have been growing food and feeding themselves for millenia -- but each locale around the globe presents a unique challenge.
Factors like the climate, government, economy, culture, and food traditions all play a role, in differing levels, in each foodshed around the globe. When it comes to food security, though, a real hotspot in the 21st century is India, where Reuters continues it's extended special report. Can it achieve food security?
Does Our Water Really Come From Outer Space?
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11.12.09
Photo via Maryanne Ventrice
The theory generally goes that our water is the result of chemical reactions created when our planet was in its formation stage. However, a new theory poses that our water was actually a chemical hitchhiker, finding a home on Earth after being brought here as ice on incoming meteors. And it could have been receiving just the right amount from space that sets Earth apart from our dry sister planets.
Green Holiday Gift Guide: The Health and Wellness Guru (Slideshow)
by Blythe Copeland, Great Neck, New York on 11.12.09
We'd all like to be a little healthier--especially around the holidays, when food, drink, and merriment leave us a little less svelte. Help the health nut on your list get out of the fitness rut with natural rubber exercise gear; stay hydrated with on-the-go water filters; and ward off illness with essential oil diffusers. More of an aspiring health nut? We have soy candles, cookbooks, and purifying plants too.
Green Gift Guide: The Health and Wellness Guru Slideshow
After getting your health fill, click on for 10 more gift-packed categories in our:
Green Holiday Gift Guide
Harvesting Fog Provides Drinking Water, Food to Peruvian Slums
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11.12.09
Photo via Green Diary
In Lima, Peru, more than 1.3 million people have no access to drinking water. The citizens without it are in the poorest areas, where water trucked in can cost nine times as much as it does in richer areas. So, citizens have had to either make do without running water, or, with the help of a German NGO, make dew into drinking water.
News from Mother Jones: Health Care's Carbon Footprint
by Mother Jones on 11.12.09
Happy Thursday, TreeHuggers. Everyone knows that America spends a ton of money on health care. But it turns out we spend a lot of fossil fuels on it, too. In fact, a recent study found that a full 8 percent of our carbon emissions come from health-care-related sources. Hospitals are the biggest culprits, followed by the pharmaceutical industry.
Also on our radar this week: California's water woes. Roll over, John Steinbeck. Drought and climate change are drying up California's once fertile Central Valley. For years, Californians have fought over the state's most vital (and exploited) natural resource. Could a new package of bills end the state's epic water wars for good?
Good news for kids: Sesame Street's going green. Watch Michelle Obama help Elmo plant a vegetable garden here. Bad news for kids: Big Coal is pushing yet another creepy coloring book. Oof. Disillusioning news for kids: What's in Loch Ness? Not a giant, friendly monster, but thousands of toxic golf balls.
Plus: Are you being bamboozled by fake bamboo fabrics?
More at Motherjones.com.
The Fight Over the Future of Food: Monsanto, GMOs, and How to Feed the World
by Collin Dunn, Corvallis, OR, USA on 11.11.09
Photo credit: KevinLallier via Flickr
On the eve of the World Summit on Food Security, Reuters has an excellent two-part special report about the future of food. Specifically, it covers the intersection of two notions that are being linked with increasing frequency: Feeding the skyrocketing world population, expected to hit 9.4 billion people by 2050; and the perceived benefits (things like increased yields and drought resistance) by some of genetically modified seeds and foods.
So, will (or should) genetically modified foods be a big part of the future of food?
Wretched Excess Dept: World's Largest Bathtub Needs 6,340 Gallons of Water
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11.11.09
Photo Via Luxury Launches
Baths aren't the greenest use of water, and that's with standard sized bath tubs. So what about a 4-foot deep, 72-foot long tub that snags the Guinness World Record (UK) as the biggest bathtub? Yeah... it's definitely not the greenest use of water.
How the Bushmen of Africa Can Save Us from the Global Water Crisis (Video)
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11. 9.09
I started in on a book about a month ago titled Heart of Dryness, which discusses how the bushmen of the Kalahari can teach us what we need to know about how to live in dry climates, something we're all increasingly finding ourselves in as we drill ourselves further into a global water crisis. However, due to political turmoil, the bushmen - the very people with all the knowledge and tools that can help billions of people cope with a growing lack of water - are a culture of people vanishing from the face of the planet. While frightening, it's a fascinating read, so I was excited to see a video interview with the book's author, James G. Workman, who discusses more about the book, the water crisis, and the quiet knowledge of the bushmen. Check out the short interview after the jump
Ask Pablo: Refrigerator Water Dispenser or Refrigerated Bottles?
by Pablo Paster, San Francisco on 11. 9.09
Image Source: Alex Muse
Dear Pablo: We drink a great deal of water all day long and wondered which uses more energy: opening the refrigerator door to get a bottle of cold water or using the water dispenser on the exterior of the unit. Also, does it take more energy to get ice from the mechanical dispenser (which also uses energy to make ice) or more by opening and closing the freezer door to get some cubes?
The big picture answer is that it probably doesn't matter. Simply the fact that you are filling your own water bottles rather than buying bottled water is a much more important environmentally-friendly act. Both your refillable bottle and water that is dispensed by your refrigerator are taken from the same starting temperature to the same final temperature, so there is no difference there. Where there is a difference, however, is in the act of opening the refrigerator door and allowing all of that cold air to spill out (hot air rises, cold air falls). By using the door-mounted dispenser this loss of cold air is avoided.
Smart Water Technologies To Be a $16.3B Industry by 2020
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11. 6.09
Photo via Pink Sherbet Photography
Electricity gets all the attention when it comes to the smart grid, but not to be ignored is also what a smart grid can do for water consumption. Americans consume twice the world average in water, massive amounts are wasted in households, manufacturing, agriculture, and landscaping - massive amounts that could be conserved through proper monitoring and accounting. Luckily, water footprints are getting increased attention, and a water grid is being zeroed in on by businesses such as IBM who is working on boosting technology behind everything from high tech water pollution sensing to water footprint accounting. . In fact, the water grid could be the next big business concept, set to be a $16.3 billion dollar industry in the next 10 years.
